the prisoners were held, who escaped by themselves with the help of the Almighty: On the same day, Waldstein Castle, which belonged to the brothers Christopher and Georg von Sparneck, in which the prisoners, namely Lamparter and Johann Baumgärtner were kept and escaped, is razed by Christoph von Freyburg, a gentleman, appointed as Hauptmann to the city of Augsburg, and the prison blown up with gunpowder and wrecked. This castle is a death pit and was built at a wild, remote spot in a forest. There was nothing else there to be found. (The Sparnecks fled before the approaching troops, and took with them what they could carry) Watchtower in the Spanish War of Succession After its destruction in 1523, the castle was forgotten. Not until the War of Spanish Succession (1701–1714), was it used again, this time as a store, the gatehouse being re-roofed and acting as a watchtower. The red tiles used for the roof gave rise to its name of the Red Castle, a term first coined by the headmaster of Hof Grammar School, Helfrecht, in 1795 when he published his first work on the castle. The castle today Of the once proud castle rock, only its foundations remain. In 2007, a small part of the wall fell down. The State Department for Monument Conservation is considering whether to save the ruins. Waldstein Festival The Waldstein Festival was staged by the Fichtelgebirge Club at Münchberg for the first time in 1923, 400 years after the destruction of the fortress. In 1995, the Waldstein Rock Theatre Club () was founded, which currently numbers 150 members and since its founding has performed four historical plays on the stage at the foot of the castle, three of them written themselves. Sources References External links Waldsteinburg im inventory of castles History of the Waldsteinburg at the home page of the parish of Zell Castles in Bavaria Fichtel Mountains Ruins in Germany Hill castles